This transcript was made from the Challenger's OPS2 tape
recorder system, which recorded voice communication among the Challenger crew and
between the crew and ground control. The unit was recovered from the ocean
floor 43 days after the Challenger accident. IBM
engineers helped NASA painstakingly restore the tape's data, and this
transcript is said to be the complete result, up till loss of data at T + 73
seconds.

This transcript surfaced on the Internet as early as 1993, and alleges to
be additional material suppressed from NASA's official transcript,
continuing at T + 75 seconds. It was originally published in the tabloid
newspaper Weekly World
News in 1991
(Part One and Part Two)
and republished in
1993.
A different version was published in 1996,
going back to the initial version when it was again republished in
1999.
It has also circulated on Usenet and a number of web sites. NASA
states that this transcript is a fake, and its authenticity is widely
disbelieved.

Information about the recovery of the flight recorder, the official NASA
transcript, and various unsuccessful FOIA requests and legal suits brought
by the media to obtain copies of NASA's actual recordings.

Excerpts from court cases in which the New York Times unsuccessfully
tried to get copies of the actual recordings. NASA was able to deny the New
York Times' Freedom of Information Act request by asserting that the written
transcripts were full and complete, there was no additional information to
be gleaned from voice inflections or cabin background noise, and thus the
request would unnecessarily invade the astronauts' privacy and cause pain to
their loved ones.

Steve Patlan at NASA/JSC Electrical Power Systems argues passionately
against the validity of the transcript by describing the inner workings of
the shuttle's power systems. The OPS2 recorder, unlike modern "black box"
flight recorders, did not have an independent power supply, and it's
exceedingly unlikely that the shuttle's three fuel cells produced power more
than a few seconds after the explosion, he states. This would render the
existence of any recording past that point impossible.

Dennis Powell, a noted freelance journalist twice nominated for a
Pulitzer prize for his Challenger coverage,
explains how he was asked by a tabloid reporter to elaborate on a rumored
recording of the astronauts' last moments that he had heard about but been
unable to verify. Out of this phone conversation, Dennis alleges, the
"transcript" published in the Weekly World News was born.